It’s not hard to find examples of spreading lawlessness, as Californians endure a rash of smash-and-grab robberies and a persistent homelessness problem that is turning public parks and street corners into tent cities. Whatever the specific crime data, these incidents grab the public’s attention because they create a sense of disorder. Now add another particularly infuriating example to the list: squatters.
We’ve seen myriad reports about people who illegally occupy vacant homes, often in upscale neighborhoods. They move into homes that are listed for sale or are second homes. In some cases, they book a stay at a vacation rental and then refuse to leave. In Oakland, it’s become a political cause after a group of squatting homeless women grabbed media attention, some of it celebratory.
Property owners often find themselves facing long and costly court battles to retake their own properties. Californians shouldn’t have to worry that if they leave their homes they might not be able to get back inside. Squatters rarely are poor, downtrodden folks. Alleged squatters reportedly turned a Beverly Hills mansion into a party house. It’s become such a plague that a man known as “The Squatter Hunter” has started a business helping owners reoccupy their homes.
The problem isn’t confined to California, but California law makes it too easy for squatters to exert their “rights” and drag out the eviction process. That’s one problem with California’s expansive tenant laws, which limit the power of the real rights-holders, the property owners. In Florida, for instance, the governor recently signed a law expediting the process for removing these predators. Even liberal New York is considering something similar. California should follow suit.
In a recent article, The Washington Post quotes “experts” who claim that there’s no real squatter problem and claim it’s a creation of “right-wing” media. Well, squatting might be rare in the scheme of things, but it’s a serious problem that has been covered extensively even in mainstream media publications.
It’s time for the Legislature to act before this relatively small problem becomes yet another example of California dysfunction.
